Road win a nice step for Bradley

Friday

Feb 7, 2014 at 7:04 PM

Dave ReynoldsOF THE JOURNAL STAR

A Thursday night win in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season could go a long way toward the Bradley men’s basketball team avoiding a Thursday night fate one month from now in the MVC tournament.

The Braves’ 63-54 victory at Loyola not only snapped an almost one-year losing streak away from home, but it moved BU into a three-way tie with Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois for fifth place in the MVC standings at 5-6 with seven games to play.

Bradley is now two games ahead of three teams in the league (Loyola, Drake and Evansville). With a strong finish, aided by a more favorable schedule down the stretch, the Braves are in good position to finish among the top six and stay out of the Thursday play-in round in St. Louis for the first time since 2010.

“Mentally, winning on the road cleared a hurdle for us,” BU coach Geno Ford said. “We had to get back that Missouri State home loss to have any chance of a first-round (tournament) bye. Now, with a two-game homestand (Sunday vs. Evansville and Wednesday against Indiana State), we have a chance to get ahead of pace.”

The BU coach knows that’s easier said than done going against the two Indiana teams that beat the Braves at their arenas. But Bradley’s 4-1 Carver Arena record in Valley games speaks for itself as does its last home result, a 64-45 thrashing of Illinois State. “We’ve avoided mental lapses at home much better than we have on the road,” he said. “That’s a key for us. We’re not going to trade baskets and beat you. But we’re good enough to beat good teams if we defend at a high level and have timely offense. That’s what we did at Loyola. We have to grind it out.”

Of course, in the context of a full season, finally winning on the road is just one small step. With a largely inexperienced team, it makes no sense to jump forward too far and fill their heads with tournament seeding possibilities.

“We can’t put the cart in front of the horse,” Ford said. “All they need to be focused on is when we played at Evansville, it was a one-possession game with a minute to play and we lost. We need to play with a chip on our shoulder.

“The last thing I’m going to do is give them a speech about long-term plans. The only thing we’ve harped on is telling them everything you want to accomplish is still in front of your face if you play the right way.”

1,600: It’s been a long haul — six years, in fact — for Bradley to get from 1,500 to 1,600 all-time wins, which the Braves achieved at Loyola. Coincidentally, the Braves’ 1,500th win also came at Loyola, in November 2007.

BU has averaged just 16.7 wins in those six seasons and dropped three spots from 25th to 28th nationally in the total wins rankings during the period.

“They haven’t been adding up fast enough,” Ford said. “Hopefully we get to 1,700 a little faster.”

The quickest the Braves have gone from one century win mark to the next was going from 400 to 500 in a shade over three seasons (1946-1950).

Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or at dreynolds@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @davereynolds2.